Thursday, August 31, 2006

Strategic Position

Long-term business success is rooted in the ability to build and sustain a product or service offering that is different than that of its rivals, and different in ways that are important to customers.

The definition of this offering, and how it relates to the customer and competitive offerings is a strategic position.

For a strategic position to be sustainable, the detailed activities required to deliver it must be different. The offereings and activities must force competitors to choose between maintaining their current strategic position - or attack yours.

If you're not familiar with strategic position, we encourage you to read Michael Porter's Harvard Business Review article "What Is Strategy?"

Keep the description of the strategic position simple - just a few words.

Your strategic position should not change much - should last for at least 10 years.